Soldiers, patients and prisoners began voting in national elections, three days ahead of the general population, while insurgents denounced the balloting as a "satanic project" but did not threaten to attack polling stations. The early voting went ahead Monday despite the sound of detonations rumbling across the capital and at least 15 deaths in ongoing violence. U.S. President George W. Bush offered encouraging words from Washington to Iraqi voters but cautioned that the parliamentary elections "won't be perfect." Asked about the number of Iraqi casualties from the war and the insurgency, Bush said (watch video): "I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis." ... http://www.cbsnews.com

Trying to avoid a public relations disaster, aides to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco fretted over her not appearing in charge after Hurricane Katrina hit, even worrying about her clothing, documents released Monday show.Thirteen pages of e-mails sent in the immediate days after the August 29 storm also reflect the Blanco administration's concerns over race relations -- specifically, the number of black victims leaving Louisiana to find shelter.A Blanco spokeswoman dismissed the race issue as the concern of just one staffer and said e-mails were plucked from among an estimated 100,000 documents -- on everything from attire to how to fix the levees -- that the governor gave to a special House committee investigating the government's response to Katrina....http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/12/katrina.documents.ap/index.html?section=cnn_us

A government program that put Hurricane Katrina evacuees in hotels while they sought other housing must be extended a month beyond the deadline set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a federal judge ruled Monday. Judge Stanwood Duval extended the program until Feb. 7. ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5474323,00.html

Expect much gnashing of teeth in Hong Kong this week. The chances of securing a comprehensive trade deal are non-existent, with the talks now really about damage limitation and the apportionment of blame.The development charities will say that the selfish behaviour of the developed world has condemned poor nations to further penury. Washington and Brussels will say the negotiations have been stymied by the obduracy of India and Brazil. Economists will have a field day explaining how the world is turning its back on millions of dollars' worth of extra growth, and that the poor countries will be the ones who will really suffer if the global economy lapses back into a new dark age of protectionism. That's certainly the accepted view. An alternative argument is that the trade talks are pretty much irrelevant to development and that in as much as they do matter, developing countries may be buying a pup....http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,16781,1664984,00.html

Osama bin Laden may no longer have operational control of his terror network, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan told a gathering of local journalists Monday, according to two Pakistani television channels. Ryan Crocker was quoted as saying bin Laden cannot communicate with his followers because he is likely hiding in a very remote area, Pakistan's Geo Television and state-run PTV reported after the meeting. U.S. Embassy spokesman Peter Kovach, who was at the gathering, confirmed the substance of the news reports. He said the comments were made at a lunch for senior Pakistani journalists. Neither station broadcast a tape of the remarks, and Kovach said he had no recording either. According to Geo, Crocker also doubted suggestions that Egyptian al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri had effective control of the terror group, saying that the fact he issues occasional video and audio taped statements does not prove anything. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1397396

Leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries met in Saudi Arabia last week for an event billed as "The Third Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit Conference". The title was quite a mouthful and it failed to set the western media alight with excitement, but the event itself was extraordinary in every sense of the word. Speaker after speaker acknowledged that the Muslim world is beset with challenges on an ever-widening range of issues. It is suffering from a deep-seated social, economic and religious malaise with which it has so far proved incapable of dealing. In the words of the summit's final communique: "The Islamic nation is in a crisis". Such thoughts are not new, but to hear the confessions of failure expressed with such frankness, by the very people who have been presiding over the mess - and broadcast to millions around the Muslim world - was little short of revolutionary. ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1665471,00.html